Home Schooling Your Kids? These Tools can Help.

Compiled by

Dr. Kimberly Miller

President NSA Psychological Services Board




With the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are faced with managing our kids home schooling.  Here’s a list of tools that can help.  This list was compiled by Dr. Kimberly Miller, the current president of the National Sheriff’s Association Psychological Services Section.

Tools For Educators

Wooclap has made its software free for K-12 educators to use “forever.” The program helps teachers inject interactivity into remote lessons through quizzes, polls, wordclouds and other methods. The platform also includes flashcards (“wooflash“), which promote student memorization and comprehension while generating data to help educators track student progress.

https://www.wooclap.com/

Zearn has made its K-5 math curriculum available for free to teachers. The content includes 400 hours of digital lessons with on-screen teachers and “supportive remediation,” as well as paper-based materials that can be used device-free. The company is running continual webinars for district administrators, teachers and parents to help them get the service set up for their students.

https://about.zearn.org/distance-learning

Newsela is providing free access to its collections, including those for English language arts, social studies, science and social-emotional learning, through the 2019-2020 school year. Newsela is an instructional content platform that combines leveled content with integrated formative assessments, culled from sources that include the National Geographic, NASA, Biography.com, Encyclopedia Britannica, the Washington Post and many others. Access can be by individual teacher for the class or district administrator for the whole district.

https://newsela.com/about/distance-learning/

Kapwing is giving away licenses for its professional edition to teachers. Kapwing is a collaborative online image and video editor with a cloud storage workspace. According to the company, it serves as an “excellent tool for teachers who are making video materials or lessons to send to students for remote learning, for students working together on a group project or for a classroom looking for a digital space to share multimedia projects with each other.” The pro edition can accommodate videos up to 40 minutes long (versus 10 minutes in the free, basic version), lets users edit and store all content, make the content private and offers a one-gigabyte upload limit. Free teacher accounts are available through Apr. 17, 2020.

https://www.kapwing.com/resources/free-kapwing-pro-accounts-for-educators-affected-by-covid-19/

Kiron has broadcast access to a set of free, interactive online lessons to help teachers globally learn how to better teach students online during school closings. The startup, funded and supported by MIT Solve, focuses primarily on refugees worldwide and underserved communities in the Middle East to provide access to high-quality education. However, the course applies to educators making the switch to online teaching anywhere, covering topics such as getting active participation online and creating a learning environment.

https://teach.kiron.ngo/

Knowre has announced that it would make its math service free to all American teachers, schools and districts through the end of the school year. Knowre Math is an online core supplement for grades 1-12 that needs only a browser to view or an iPad app. Features include “walk me through” support and targeted assignments to help the student work independently. Teachers receive access to student progress via a dashboard.

https://www.knowre.com/school_closure_support/

Tools For Educators

Wooclap has made its software free for K-12 educators to use “forever.” The program helps teachers inject interactivity into remote lessons through quizzes, polls, wordclouds and other methods. The platform also includes flashcards (“wooflash“), which promote student memorization and comprehension while generating data to help educators track student progress.

https://www.wooclap.com/

Zearn has made its K-5 math curriculum available for free to teachers. The content includes 400 hours of digital lessons with on-screen teachers and “supportive remediation,” as well as paper-based materials that can be used device-free. The company is running continual webinars for district administrators, teachers and parents to help them get the service set up for their students.

https://about.zearn.org/distance-learning

Newsela is providing free access to its collections, including those for English language arts, social studies, science and social-emotional learning, through the 2019-2020 school year. Newsela is an instructional content platform that combines leveled content with integrated formative assessments, culled from sources that include the National Geographic, NASA, Biography.com, Encyclopedia Britannica, the Washington Post and many others. Access can be by individual teacher for the class or district administrator for the whole district.

https://newsela.com/about/distance-learning/

Kapwing is giving away licenses for its professional edition to teachers. Kapwing is a collaborative online image and video editor with a cloud storage workspace. According to the company, it serves as an “excellent tool for teachers who are making video materials or lessons to send to students for remote learning, for students working together on a group project or for a classroom looking for a digital space to share multimedia projects with each other.” The pro edition can accommodate videos up to 40 minutes long (versus 10 minutes in the free, basic version), lets users edit and store all content, make the content private and offers a one-gigabyte upload limit. Free teacher accounts are available through Apr. 17, 2020.

https://www.kapwing.com/resources/free-kapwing-pro-accounts-for-educators-affected-by-covid-19/

Kiron has broadcast access to a set of free, interactive online lessons to help teachers globally learn how to better teach students online during school closings. The startup, funded and supported by MIT Solve, focuses primarily on refugees worldwide and underserved communities in the Middle East to provide access to high-quality education. However, the course applies to educators making the switch to online teaching anywhere, covering topics such as getting active participation online and creating a learning environment.

https://teach.kiron.ngo/

Knowre has announced that it would make its math service free to all American teachers, schools and districts through the end of the school year. Knowre Math is an online core supplement for grades 1-12 that needs only a browser to view or an iPad app. Features include “walk me through” support and targeted assignments to help the student work independently. Teachers receive access to student progress via a dashboard.

https://www.knowre.com/school_closure_support/




About Dr. Kimberly Miller

Dr. Kimberly Miller is a police psychologist and a sought-after speaker, consultant and trainer who has been inspiring and motivating individuals in our profession for over 15 years. She is a strength-based facilitator of individual and organizational change and is known for her relationship-based approach to her work and the skill-based, engaging training and consultation services she offers. She uses workshops, coaching and organizational interventions to improve not only the individual line-level employee skills but also work to improve supervision, management, and the entire organization.

Dr. Miller’s educational background includes a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Auburn University, a Master’s degree in clinical psychology from Ball State University, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Colorado State University. In addition to her academic credentials, Dr. Miller has significant experience in leadership and mentoring with over 25 years of serving in supervisory and leadership roles and currently serves as the inaugural president of the National Sheriff’s Association Psychological Services Section.